Egypt's police seek ability to monitor social media for signs of dissent

IT companies asked to provide system which scans Facebook and Twitter for profanity, insults and incitements to protest

Egyptian journalists protest in Cairo on Sunday in support of their imprisoned colleagues. The interior ministry wants the power to monitor social media for incitement of demonstrations, sit-ins and illegal strikes. Photograph: Xinhua /Landov/Barcroft Media

Egypt's police force is seeking to build a surveillance system to monitor social media for expressions of dissent – including profanity, immorality, insults and calls for strikes and protests.

According to a leaked document in which technology companies are invited to offer their services, Egypt's interior ministry says it wants the ability to scan Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Viber in real-time for usage that might "harm public security or incite terrorism".

The ministry asks the unnamed companies for a system that could dredge up "vocabulary which is contrary to law and public morality". According to the document, this would include "degrading and acerbic ridicule; slander; insult; the use of profanity", incitement of "extremism, violence and rebellion … demonstrations, sit-ins and illegal strikes"; and "pornography and decadence; immorality and debauchery, and the publication of ways to manufacture explosives".

"They are using very vague and broad terms," said Ramy Raoof, a digital rights researcher who documents infringements of online freedoms in Egypt. "They think they are the only people who can judge people's opinions."

Among many other specifications, the police's preferred surveillance system would harbour the capacity to view allegedly problematic messages within 30 seconds of their publication; to recognise influential opinion-shapers within a certain geographic area; and to track how an individual's opinions changed over time.

Many of the specifications could be achieved with existing software, digital analysts said. "It's certainly feasible. It bears a lot of similarities to techniques used in existing data leakage technology," said Rik Ferguson, the security research director at Trend Micro, a digital security firm.

Ferguson named one firm that already provided similar services, and said it was comparable to the abilities of the NSA's tracking software, Prism. "The intent is the same, though smaller in scope," Ferguson said.

Since the leak, Egypt's interior minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, has confirmed that his staff are seeking to mass-monitor social media, but denied this would infringe civil liberties.

"The new system will not affect by any measure the freedom of opinion and expression," said Ibrahim, according to MENA, Egypt's state-run news agency.

Egypt's police have long been criticised for their heavy-handed tactics, which were a major cause of the 2011 revolution.